Paul Wesley and Nina Dobrev know there will be never be another Stelena — and they’re not going to try to outdo their Vampire Diaries characters’ beloved dynamic.
“Aaron Kaplan, one of the EPs, said, ‘Do you guys want to play romantic partners?’ Nina and I talked about it,” Wesley, 43, said on the Wednesday, July 22, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “We feel like there’s this whole Stefan and Elena thing is so iconic and so perfect and, in a weird way, we don’t want to … have a comparison.”
Wesley played vampire Stefan Salvatore on The Vampire Diaries opposite Dobrev’s Elena Gilbert from 2009 to 2017. Throughout the show’s run, Elena was involved in a love triangle between Stefan and his brother, Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder). Elena ultimately ended up with Damon.
Nearly a decade later, Wesley and Dobrev, 37, will share the screen again in the upcoming TV adaptation of Aggie Blum Thompson’s novel You Deserve to Know. In the Hulu thriller, Dobrev’s husband is murdered and Wesley is one of the key suspects in the case.
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“If we were playing husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend, people would compare that to Stefan and Elena,” Wesley noted on Wednesday of their respective roles. “So, we wanted to create a new dynamic so that we offered something new to the fans where we’re still interacting on screen but it’s in a different capacity.”
“Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper produced You Deserve to Know and was initially wary about Wesley and Dobrev’s choice, though she eventually came around to the idea.
“I really respect that you guys have so much respect for the craft of what you built on Vampire Diaries, and I do agree with you in a way that it would almost be hard to see you two in a couple and not be like, ‘Stefan and Elena,’” Cooper, 31, acknowledged. “I think we did it right, but don’t worry, everyone: I asked.”
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In the years since wrapping TVD, Wesley’s bond with Dobrev has gotten even closer.
“Look, so it’s very public that Nina and I had this very fun, kind of, back-and-forth relationship in the sense,” Wesley recalled. “In the beginning, we didn’t get along, and that’s highly publicized. That’s something she’s spoken about, I’ve spoken about it, so it’s not like it’s breaking news, and now we’re such good friends and I absolutely adore her.”
According to Wesley, he and Dobrev eventually pondered the idea of sharing the screen again once “enough time went on” since the end of TVD.
“I don’t know whose idea it was, but we kept saying, ‘We should do something, and let’s make it special, let’s really make it great,’” he recalled. “So, we were trying to find something for years, and then we would not talk about it for two years, and then another, ‘Oh, we should do this?’ and then until finally, You Deserve to Know came about, and we’re like, ‘This is it. Let’s do this.’”
Wesley and Dobrev’s costar Somerhalder, 47, is not involved with You Deserve Each Other after stepping back from Hollywood to focus on his other businesses. (Wesley and Somerhalder notably co-own a bourbon company.)
When asked whether Somerhalder was jealous not to be included in the new show with his BFF and his ex Dobrev, Wesley quipped, “Maybe we need to call a friend and ask him if he’s jealous right now. … Deep down, you know he wants to be written in.”
